I'm getting rid of the blue paint. Put on YZ490 forks and a longer shock from Works Performance, should have some real suspension now.

Hi Uncle

There must be some good benefits for going to this effort of using a yz490 fork over the original ones? Are they that much better the original tenere forks?
Have you gone to the yz490 to replace forks that are stuffed?

THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE, LAFFI AND APOLOGIES FOR NOT REPLYING SOONER, I HAVE BEEN OUT OF THE LOOP DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND MY CONTROL THANKS FOR THE ADVICE, I WILL LOOK INTO IT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laffi

Hi PNGExile,

I've been on the same quest as you and I was lucky enough to get hold of a set of front tanks and a rear left last autumn on eBay! Pure luck!
- paid far to much for it though...

Anyway, I'm about restoring it and are getting hold of a few parts as we speak.

Maybe the following might help you:

- Italian Tenere Club got a site with a great forum.
There is a gentleman and a BYRD fanatic there, called Tazzone (avatar) and he has 4(!) XTZ 660 BYRDs!
He seems to have the right contacts and seems to get hold of a BYRD from time to time. Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to ask a few questions on the forum. Some of the guys there speak only Italian, but a few speaks english - and they are helpful in translating.
Log on to www.clubtenereitalia.it

- Check out this german website; www.rallye-tenere.net
A lot of information on the XTZ 660 and more, as well as usefull links.

- African Queens still sell the rear tanks and the the water tank attached to the engine guard; www.africanqueens.de (go to the "shop" section)

This option will give you some + 40 litres with the original tank in front. (The BYRD front and rear combined contain around 62-63 litres of fuel in total).
Here's a couple of pics from an ad of an australian build with only the rear tanks mounted. (It is the same model as yours with twin headlights. The original BYRD kit was made for the single headlight version sold from 91 - 94 (in Europe)), but should fit with some tweaking with the front fairing;http://brisbane.gumtree.com.au
(search for XTZ 660 - it is a red bike)
If you don't find it, PM me and I'll send you a pic.

- There's also three french versions, made by Yamaha France. One from 91 with an assymetric tank design (two tanks front and two rear, made of fiberglass, and a left rear), and a civilian version, 94, that was ment for the touring marked (two tanks front in aluminium(?)), and finally a version from 94 (two tanks front, aluminium, and a left rear)) wich was made for the twin headlight version. I have never seen anyone for sale so far.

All these kits mentioned above, was made for rigging the XTZ for the Marathon class in the Dakar rally apart from the french civilian version called Marathon.

And at last, there was a couple of japanese prototypes racing in Wynn's Safari in 91, I believe. In some topic here on ADV.

Hope this will be of help.
(I'm on a slow modem at the moment, so no pictures submitted, sorry).

just got back from the ocr and the old girl is just about to hit 50 000 kms

i figure it's time to give her a bit of love

it used a little oil over the 3000 ks of the ocr trip but not enough to lose sleep over but i am thinking of giving it a compression test to see where it's at
does anyone know what the compression was when they were new so i can tell how much it has dropped.

also whenever i take the air box cover off there is always a little oil in the botom of the box. is this unusual ?

the bike is a 99 model xtz660

thanks
derek

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